Mobile assets, such as vehicles and equipment within vehicles, pose challenges in terms of tracking, management and deployment. Currently, there are several techniques for tracking the locations of vehicles using, for example, a Global Positioning System (GPS) application. Typically, such systems are limited with regard to the information that they provide.
GPS systems and other location-determining systems do not provide information about facilities, such as public utility companies and telecommunication companies, other than geographical information. Facility map information reflecting the attributes of a facility, e.g., the location of cable lines, power lines, gas lines, etc., is important for a technician dispatched to a facility. Currently, facility maps provided by public utility companies and telecommunication companies are manually downloaded by a technician or provided to the technician in paper form. Downloading a facility map takes a long time.
Whether downloaded or in paper form, facility maps are often out of date. This poses challenges, particularly in emergency situations, in which attributes of a facility may change quickly.